It’s Gonna Be Totally Awesome – A Very Potter Musical
About four years ago at my last job, a coworker introduced me to A Very Potter Musical. AVPM, which is a series of performances based on the Harry Potter universe, set to music and filled with lampshades, loving riffs and meta themes about fandom. I immediately fell in love. Our office was quickly filled with quotes (what the hell IS a Hufflepuff?), Red Vines (what can’t they do?), and singing about how Hermione Can’t Draw (even if she reads a book about how to draw!). I’m sure it was annoying as hell to everybody else, but it was a magical time for us.
If you haven’t watched these on YouTube and you have even a little passing familiarity with the Harry Potter franchise, you should really check them out. If you’re like me and you grew up reading and loving the Harry Potter franchise? You owe it to yourself and your reserve of hilariously quotable lines to watch.
A Very Potter Musical
Baby, you’re not alone.
The first performance. Sadly the YouTube recording isn’t of the highest quality, especially the audio, in which the band tends to overpower the singers. That aside, A Very Potter Musical is hilarious and wonderful. AVPM covers events from books 1, 4, 6 and 7; originally intended as a one shot performance instead of a series, the show compacts the story down into a solid two and a half hours long performance. The choice of story elements picked are set at maximum hilarity levels – Voldemort living on the back of Professor Quirrel’s head is turned into an Odd Couple/bromance story, the quest for the horcruxes is heavily lampshaded (“…or it could be hidden somewhere around the mundane British countryside. Our search could entail months of depressing camping, breaking into Gringotts, and drinking boatloads of Polyjuice Potion.” “Well, the medallion says that’s dumb, so we’re not gonna do that.”), and Harry wins the dragon challenge with an acoustic guitar and the fact he’s the coolest kid in the world.
That’s not a night troll, that’s Hermione!
My favorite number is Ron and Draco (played by a woman, the wonderful Lauren Lopez) singing their hearts out about the worrisome problem of falling in love with Hermione Granger – ‘Granger Danger.’
A Very Potter Sequel
Harry freakin’ Potter!
The sequel to AVPM, staged a year later, shows a marked increase in production value. Actual sets! Decent recording! Choreography! An excellent follow up, this covers events from books 1,3 and 5. With Voldemort defeated (SPOILERS GUYS VOLDEMORT DOESN’T WIN), we get a new main villain. But much better than the main villain is Joe Walker (Voldemort in the previous production) playing Professor Umbridge in what is basically the best portrayal of any character in a fan-production of anything. AVPS hits all the highest note of the first one – making fun of the books while deeply appreciating them. It does drag in a few places – there’s a subplot with Draco wearing diapers that plays out as awkwardly uncomfortable as it sounds and I personally think Lupin could have been handled in a funnier manner. But most importantly AVPS keeps the spirit of AVPM while absolutely rivaling it for music and topping it for dance numbers.
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via http://starkid.wikia.com/
A Very Potter Senior Year
AVPS did a great job of wrapping up the story with a touching ending that was super satisfying. Most of us thought that would be about it for Team Starkid’s handling of Harry Potter, since their Harry, Darren Criss, was snatched up by the monster that is Glee (good for him, sad for us).
But last year there was a surprise announcement very shortly before the premier HP convention, LeakyCon – not only was Team Starkid going to be one of the guests, but they were going to stage the last installment of their musicals, dubbed A Very Potter Senior Year. The Starkid announcement was awesome, filled with familiar faces including Criss’s, which sparked huge excitement.
Starkid really pulled together a great last minute production; they ended up being able to do their own music with sets and props, including a hilariously large snake puppet (unsurprising, considering AVPSY covers books 2, 6 and a little bit of 7). AVPSY is the least polished of the productions, but they were upfront about that at first – most cast members are still holding their scripts as this was more of a live script read through for most of them.
When life sucks, dance. And since life ALWAYS sucks…always dance.
AVPSY is filled with throwbacks and references to the other two productions and one of these – a song called ‘Always Dance’ is my favorite number of the show. It’s a prequel of a song to Voldemort’s return song ‘Dance Again’ from AVPM. When ‘Always Dance’ started, I was reportedly giggling and flailing wildly about in my seat, according to my very bemused husband.
Team Starkid uses these musicals not only to make the fandom laugh, but to talk about the themes of the Harry Potter books – a series of books that grew up with a generation. I was eleven years old when I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and after the first few chapters I was waiting for an owl to show up with my letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. The books ended as many of us were entering adulthood; but much like the final chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, A Very Potter Senior Year and the rest of Starkid’s musicals remind us that we can always go back to Hogwarts.
You can watch all three of the Harry Potter musicals from Team Starkid on their YouTube channel, and purchase soundtracks and other merchandise from their store. Check it out – then you’ll be the one that is totally awesome!
